Beijing: China`s newly established National Security Commission headed by President Xi Jinping held its first meeting, drawing up plans to build an integrated command structure to deal with rising threats of terrorism and deepening disputes with neighbours.
"China now faces the most complicated situation it ever has, internally and externally," Xi said yesterday, presiding over the first meeting of the NSC, which was modelled on the lines of its American counterpart.
The NSC is expected to be the principal forum to advise Xi, who holds the most powerful posts of chief of ruling Communist Party, Presidency and the head of the military.
Premier Li Keqiang and head of the National People`s Congress (NPC) Zhang Dejiang were the only other two members of the leadership and rest of its composition is not known.
Formulated earlier this year, the NSC was set up after the March 1 Kunming railway station knife attack by alleged militants from Xinjiang in which 33 people were killed and 143 injured.
In his address, Xi called on the NSC to explore a "national security path with Chinese characteristics" apparently advising the officials not to make it a copycat model of its US counterpart.
Xi said that in order to implement the overall national security outlook, China must prioritise external and internal security.
China will seek "development, reform and stability" to foster a safe domestic environment while pursuing peace, cooperation, win-win situations and a harmonious world, he said.
China will build a national security system that includes the security of politics, territory, military, economy, culture, society, science and technology, information, ecology, natural resources and nuclear programmes, state-run China Daily quoted Xi as saying.
Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations at Peking University, said internal security would be the main concern of the NSC.
"Similar committees of overseas nations focus more on external and diplomatic affairs, but for China, the internal situation will be given more weight," Jian told Hong Kong- based South China Morning Post.
Xu Guangyu, a retired PLA major general, said counter- terrorism would be a major issue for the committee to tackle, as domestic terrorist attacks posed a serious threat to the public.
Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said a security outlook of a broader range and scope is "desperately needed at a time when China is increasingly engaged in world affairs".
China is rising from a regional major country to a major world player, and "when China is developing and going global, the threats that run against us and our setbacks may emerge more often than before", Ruan said.
